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Up to speed: Cornwall's Lotus-eater

A small Cornish sports car manufacturer has unveiled a lightweight rival to the Lotus Elise.

The R1, which is priced at £30,139, is built by Javan Sports Cars near Helston and can reach 62mph from standstill in 3.6sec — 1.3sec faster than the Elise R. The R1 weighs just 670kg thanks to its aluminium panels and honeycomb monocoque construction and has a power to weight ratio of 328bhp per ton.

The Cornish company was set up in 2002 by Javan Smith, 62, and Andrew Fletcher, 36, who previously built scale models of historic racing cars. It will begin by building 12 cars in the next year and already has orders from the United States for three left-hand-drive models.

The R1 is powered by a 220bhp 2 litre Honda i-VTEC engine, the same as that used in another potential rival, the Ariel Atom. An even lighter, faster Sprint version of the R1